


Yang's modeling career in brief

by Flexor



Series: The Caffeine Files [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Bad Career Choices, Coco's past, Good career advice, Modeling, Pornography, Somewhere in V2, Team CFVY to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 21:17:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8912320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flexor/pseuds/Flexor
Summary: Coco Adel used to be a top model, living a life that mere mortals such as Yang Xiao Long can only dream of. So when opportunity knocks, who better to ask for some advice? Coco, generous girl that she is, gives Yang the best of advice: Don't. There's all kinds of really bad stuff going on in the modeling, or rather "modeling"  industry. Yang takes Coco's advice on board, and drops it over the side as soon as she gets out of port.Oh dear...Love to ChatRWBYlette's series "Say Cheesecake", which I can warmly recommend if you don't mind a bit of nudity. In written form. In the best possible taste. There's a bit of a confrontation in there between Coco and Yang. This is what I did with that idea.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Say "Cheesecake!"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6925195) by [ChatRWBYlette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChatRWBYlette/pseuds/ChatRWBYlette). 



Coco was sitting in the cafeteria, lunch tray pushed to one side, writing an after action report for one of their team outings in the beautiful Forever Fall Forest. It was mainly a matter of expanding on Yatsuhashi's "I destroyed a number of Grimm" to include the twelve Beowolves and three Ursai that he had sliced and diced, to compress Velvet's fourteen page treatise on her failing to be Yatsuhashi and other severe personal flaws into "I did fine", and to keep Fox' industrial grade sarcasm from setting the pages on fire.

Someone came up to her table and put a small cardboard tub in front of her, filled with some kind of warm dark liquid. Coco looked up into the fresh youthful grin of Yang Xiao Long, heavy hitter of Team RWBY, and card-carrying Blonde Bombshell.

"Hi Coco," she said, taking a chair opposite her.

"Hello Yang," said Coco.

She looked at the cup and wondered what it was. Anti-bacterial hand wash? Gun lube? Was she supposed to dab a few drops behind each ear? What? She looked back up at Yang, who raised a similar cup to her lips and took a small sip. Oh merciful gods, she wanted her to _drink_ it.

Yang put down her cup, and looked at Coco with her elbows on the table, showing a generous amount of herself. Coco looked, rude not to take what was offered, then looked back up.

"What can I do for you?"

"Word on the street is you used to be a model."

"Yeah," said Coco, a whole world of every known emotion compressed into one small word.

"I was thinking of maybe doing a little modelling myself, and I was wondering if you have any advice for me."

"Oh yes," said Coco, with feeling. "The very best of advice."

"Yeah?" Yang's eyes shone.

"Don't."

Yang frowned. It was clearly not the advice she'd been expecting, but Coco knew that it was very, _very_ good advice. Yang sat up, one hand behind her head, one on her hip, chest out.

"What, don't think I've got the goods? Come on!"

Coco laughed. "You've got too much of the goods. Ever read a fashion magazine? How many girls have you seen with tatas like that?"

Yang gave a sneer. "Look, I wasn't thinking of becoming Remnant's next top model overnight, but there's other stuff I can do. Look at Pyrrha Nikos."

"Our Mistrali goddess. Don't mind if I do. Still not touching Pumpkin Pete cereal with a ten foot spoon." Coco sighed. "Look, I did high fashion, so I never got anywhere near the product endorsement racket. Still I can tell you that there's probably about five jobs in there right now, and about fifty thousand young hopefuls. I think Mr. and Mrs. Nikos knew someone who could put in a word for their darling."

"She is also a five-times winner of the Mistral regional championship," said Yang. "That may have helped."

"Sure," said Coco, "but she got a sweet deal. You really don't get that without knowing people. Modeling is really hard to get into. I got a few lucky breaks." _And I've had to do things I'm really not proud of_ , she thought, but didn't say.

"Looks had nothing to do with it?"

"Look at Stefani Green. She's _beautiful_ isn't she?"

"Yeah, but look, I know I'm not as pretty as _her_ , but..."

"Yes you are." Coco pointed. "So is _that_ girl, and that girl over there. So is Blake, for that matter. Weiss, even with that scar on her face. Your little sister too. So why is Stefani on every magazine cover?"

"You mean somebody put her there? Even though she's nothing special?"

"Nono. She _has_ got talent. She's got that fire burning inside her so she doesn't _ask_ you if she's beautiful, she _tells_ you, and shame on you if you think anything else. I used to do that, too. All the successful ones do. Who knows, maybe you could learn to do it too. But really Yang. Don't."

"Why not?"

"Because you are a nice girl, and you'd get screwed. In _every_ sense of the word."

Yang sneered. "Do you think I'm _stupid_?"

"If you think you'd get any job worth doing, with zero experience, yes."

"Hah! What if I'd tell you that I already had someone offer me a job?"

Coco stared at Yang from behind her dark glasses.

"Who with?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"If they're any good, I'll know them already. If not, you _really_ don't want to get in bed with them. What kind of job is this?"

"The kind you get paid for. They want to take some stills. Maybe shoot a video with me later."

Coco leaned forward. "I'd bet a lot of money that it'll be titled something like _Blonde slut with big tits loves cream pie._ Really. Walk away. If you're stuck for cash, get a job as a waitress, you'll rake in the tips."

Yang stood up, glaring at Coco with eyes that were just short of turning red. "I think you can't take it that someone is doing better than you. I think you're jealous that I've still got the looks, and you're a... a _hasbeen_!"

Coco pushed her sunglasses up her nose, with a cold hard smile on her face.

"Hasbeen. When models use that word, they mean your tits are starting to sag." Coco pointed at Yang's chest. "Oh by the way, take good care of those. Gravity's a bitch. _Hasbeen_ means that the guys in post-production are getting tired of airbrushing out your spots and wrinkles. Hasbeen means that when your hair dye grows out, your roots show a grey hair or two. Hasbeen means that you are getting _old_. That your days are over, and that nobody wants to look at your face anymore. But what it means to _me_ , is that I'm a huntress in training, in the best academy in the whole of Remnant, leading the best damn team in this whole school, and that I don't have to listen to those skinny bitches anymore. So thank you. Now piss off, I've got things to write."

Yang bared her teeth, and with an angry noise turned round and stomped off. Coco looked at her go, breathed in, breathed out slowly. Yang was a big girl. Coco hoped she'd act like one. 

* * *

 

Coco had handed in her assignment to Head Master Ozpin, and mentioned in passing that someone was on campus offering girls 'modeling' jobs. She walked out to one of the little walls near the gates, and sat down on the grass, leaning back, watching the sun set over Emerald Forest. She was worried about Yang. Should she have been a bit nicer to her? No. Bugger that. Yang was so full of the dream of fame and fortune, so full of hope, that nothing except a good smack to the head could have knocked her out of it. Some hurt feelings were a small price to pay for avoiding some of the crap she was heading for.

Coco knew only too well the lure of modeling. She'd loved the camera, the hair, the make-up, the clothes, all the wonderful people who worked together to make her look her very best for that one-hundred twenty fifth of a second it took to make a photo. She'd loved the dinners in the expensive restaurants. The trips to exotic places, like Menagerie, where she'd modeled fuck-me dresses against the background of the bamboo forests while armed guards kept the Faunus at a safe distance. It had made her feel like a million lien.

Coco's face became a mask of stone, not a drop of emotion escaping.

It had not come cheap. There were always other models, eager for a bite at the apple, more than willing to destroy anything in their way. Coco had _been_ such a model. She had been vicious. Ruthless. Shameless. Any decency, any humanity, torn to shreds and cast into the ocean. To get at the prize, the object of her addiction, those splintered seconds of utter perfection, there was nothing she would not do. She had spread rumors. The words 'eating disorder' in the right place could devastate a career. She had played one rival against the other with effortless skill, destroying both. She had lied. Cheated. Seduced. She had slept... No. You _sleep_ with someone out of love, out of kindness, out of desire. Coco had _fucked_ her way into some of the contracts. It is very difficult for a man to say no to you when you have his cock two inches away from your mouth. For that matter, it is very difficult for a woman to say no if you whisper the word _anything_ in her ear, and don't mind it's going to hurt. Everybody did it. It was just that Coco had been better at it than others.

That was the part that made her sick to look at herself in the mirror. The part that she could never explain to someone like Yang. Yang, with her bright eyes, with her laugh springing from nothing but joy, her anger from nothing but righteous wrath. Honest. Genuine. Real.

Coco was doing okay these days. She still wasn't exactly nice, but she could live with herself. She thought of her team, and a big wave of emotion flushed over her, washing away the demons of the past. She closed her eyes, and thanked whoever was listening. 

* * *

 

There were footsteps behind her, and before Coco could shake herself out of her thoughts, a metal insulated cup was floating in front of her face. She looked up.

"Did you know that Astralien Coffee has a shrine to you?"

"They should," said Coco, taking the cup out of Yang's hand.

"Rosa says hi."

Coco flipped the lid off the cup. Rosa knew exactly how Coco liked her coffee, and this smelled like one of the special reserves. Yang had not gone half way on this. She took a sip. Letting _this_ go cold was sin beyond sin. Yang sat down next to her, looking far away.

"You were right, and I was wrong."

Oh damn. Coco quickly looked Yang over. No obvious signs, but Yang could take a wallop and not show it.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"Met the photographer in this studio downtown. We went to this location. Just a normal apartment. Nice part of town. Kids playing outside. Just a normal living room. Nice paintings on the wall."

Coco drank more coffee. Lots of dodgy movies were shot where the locals hadn't a clue what was going on next door.

"So we start talking, how old are you, what do you want out of your modeling career, have you ever done any, are you ready to meet your co-star. So this guy comes in, and we start. Nothing weird, you understand? Just a bunch of different poses, like I'm modeling clothes. And then a little looking into each other's eyes, and him having his arms round me. Nothing you haven't seen in 'The Brave', you know? And I'm really getting into it. I..." Yang coughed. "I may even have kissed him once."

"Mm-hmm." Coco could have said a lot more, but she didn't. Yang was looking at her feet, taking slow shivering breaths.

"And then he says, 'I'm gonna need you to take your top off now.' Just like that. Put your head back a little. Lower your arm. Sit down. Stand up. Take your top off."

"Oh no..." Coco looked into Yang's eyes, wordlessly asking.

"I didn't. I asked him what the hell, and he asked me what kind of job I _thought_ this was. And this dude is standing next to me trying to calm me down, and trying to tell me it's nothing anyone else hasn't done..."

"Oh gods, Yang. Did you..."

Yang's jaw set. "Nope. Ended with a knee to the crotch and a right hook to the face. And then I got out."

Coco let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

"Looks like you escaped just in time."

"Yeah. Thing is... if you hadn't warned me..." Yang looked round to Coco, tears in her eyes. "I'd have done it. I was that into it. I owe you big time."

"It's the flashlight, isn't it? Every flash tells you you're the best. Trust me, I get it." Coco emptied her cup. "Hang on. Did you sign anything?"

"Uhh..."

"Yang Xiao Long. Did you, at any point, have a pen in your hand, and use it to scribble on a piece of paper?"

"Just a release, so he could show the photos to his business partners."

"Crap." Coco leaned her head back. "How many copies were there?"

"Just one. About half a dozen pages, signature on one, initials on the rest."

"Did you at least read what it said?"

"Yeah, but it was all legal gibberish. He said it was... okay."

"Get your team in. Maybe not Ruby, but I want at least Blake. We need to get that paper back."

"I... I don't want them to know."

Coco and Yang looked into each other's eyes. Coco nodded.

"I understand. We'll use mine."

She pulled out her scroll and hit a speed button.

"Team CFVY? To the dorm. Playtime!" 

* * *

 

Coco stood in the middle of the room, dressed to kill. Yatsuhashi, Velvet and Fox stood round her and Yang.

"Velvet, Yatsu, you're with me. Yang, you stay here on backup with Fox. When the red light comes on, you send in the cavalry. Let's do this."

"Wait!" Yang raised her fists. "Shouldn't I come along?"

"Nope. Fox, if she tries to follow us, knock her senseless or tie her up or something."

"Isn't that the sort of kink we're supposed to be preventing?"

"Shut up Fox. Team CFVY, roll out." 

 

Coco, Yatsuhashi and Velvet disappeared in a whirlwind of activity. Fox wandered over to the sofa and sat down. He picked up one of his heavy books, and started to run his finger over the pages. Yang stood in front of him.

"Are you reading?"

"Yep."

Yang bent over and ran a finger over the page. "Amazing. How can you feel letters in those little dots?"

"I have magic fingers."

"I bet you do." Yang walked over to the window, looked out, sighed. "I should have gone with them."

"With you staying here, there's at least a little chance we get what we want without levelling the place."

"Hey! I _can_ be subtle, you know?"

"Sure you can. You just choose not to most of the time. I remember the other day, you were so subtle, we didn't know you were even there."

Yang stuck her tongue out at him, which was a bit pointless. They would be inside the studio by now. Too late to follow anyway. She walked back to Fox.

"Yang! Stop pacing about, you're wearing out our carpet. Sit down. Grab one of Coco's magazines. Relax."

Yang walked over to the window again and looked out. She crossed her arms, leant against the window. She looked at the city a couple miles away, with so many things going on, some of them not nice at all.

"They were going to sell videos of me banging some dude."

"I'd pay to watch it," said Fox.

"Hah." 

Yang walked back to Fox, who was tracing his book with one finger, staring at nothing. With a wicked grin, Yang stepped up in front of him, licked her lips seductively, swayed her hips, and slowly ran her hands up to her breasts, giving them a little squeeze.

"Oh," said Fox. "I was going to tell my team first, but then all this happened and I forgot. I've got some _great_ news!"

"Oh? What?" said Yang, halting mid-jiggle.

"My eyes are healed! I can see!"

Yang froze. Fox burst out laughing.

"You should see the look on your face!"

"Oh very funny!"

Fox patted the seat next to him. "Please X-L. Sit down. Team CFVY is on the job, you're in good hands."

" _XL?_ Is that a boob joke?" Yang plopped down next to Fox.

"I swear I didn't think of it like that, but from now on, I will." 

* * *

 

"Comms check."

Yatsuhashi and Velvet looked at their scrolls. A little blinking picture was on both.

"Good. Velvet, can you do your thing with the door?"

"Yes. Hang on." She placed one hand on the door, concentrated. She felt her way through the locking mechanism, and pushed. There was a rather anticlimactic little click and the door opened. If Velvet ever went into grand theft, there would be no stopping her.

"Thanks," said Coco. "Now take up position on the other end of the street, and warn us if the cops show up, or other armed thugs."

"Sure thing," said Velvet, and hid herself in a dark corner while Coco and Yatsuhashi walked inside.

"Do you think this pornographer will call the police?"

"No. But Velvet is even nicer a girl than Yang is. Not about to drop her into this."

Yatsuhashi put a big hand on Coco's shoulder. "You are taking all this trouble for a young woman who ignored your advice and insulted you in the process. You are quite nice yourself."

"Me? I'm a complete bitch. Hear my bark. Feel my bite." 

 

They found the movie maker, named Gray, at his desk in his studio. As soon as he saw them, he flipped his scroll shut.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in?"

Coco grabbed a chair, turned it round and sat on it back to front.

"We forced the door, and we are friends of one of your recent, shall we say _clients_. She was unhappy with your services and would like to have her contract back, please."

"I have many clients," said Gray. "Which one are you talking about?"

"The blonde with the big tits and the vicious right hook," said Coco. "Remember her now?"

"Oh _her_. You have that ass-backwards. I'm not working for her, she is working for me."

"She's a bit young for that kind of work," said Coco.

"What kind of noob do you think I am? I checked her ID. She's legal, and so is her contract."

"But did you run the number up the CCT? That card is fake. It's a _good_ fake I'll grant you, but still as fake as a three-lien card. She got it from the same people who supply political dissidents, and she just uses it to get booze. It's enough to make you weep, isn't it?"

"I think you're full of it. Nobody below the age of sixteen has jugs like that."

"She does. And she's fifteen. And a half. You poached her six months too soon."

"She is in a class of seventeen year olds."

"So's her sister, and _she_ is fifteen as well. They're really very talented. But not for _your_ line of work. I suggest you give me her contract, and we all forget this ever happened."

"Do you take me for a fool? All I have to do is wait for her sweet sixteen and _then_ she's mine."

Coco raised her hands. "One might argue that she was still underage when she signed, but then _you_ would just fill out the date a bit later, and that would be fraud, but who could prove that, yada, yada, yada." Coco put her chin on her hands. "Let's cut that short. We're leaving here either with that contract, or with your head."

Gray laughed. "Oh cute. Little kids trying to play hardball. I run a legit business, miss..." He waved a hand.

There was a crash, and when Gray looked, he saw that a rather expensive studio light had its support cut away with a very large sword.

"Oh how clumsy of me," said Yatsuhashi. "A thousand pardons. I hope you are insured."

Coco snapped her fingers. "Hey. Asshole. I'm still here. Either you give me that contract, or I open my handbag. You do _not_ want me to open my handbag."

Gray locked eyes with Coco. Finally, he sneered.

"To hell with this. I can get a dozen just like her any day of the week, without having to check their teeth for year rings." He reached into a desk drawer and put a small stack of papers in front of Coco. "There you go. Now get your skinny little butt out of my studio and take that gorilla with you before he craps all over the floor."

Coco looked at the paper. At the top, it said 'Letter Of Intent', and at the bottom, clear as day, was Yang's name, written in her own fair hand. Coco gave a short nod and got up.

"Pleasure not doing business with you, Mr. Gray. Oh. I've warned the Academy that you're trying to poach students for fuck movies. We're _hunters_. We're being trained to defend this nation. We have more weapons than you can dream of, _and_ we know how to use them. If you ever show your face on our campus again, you'll leave without it."

"Get lost. Don't annoy me so much I'll think it's worth coming after you."

"I am bored with lights," said Yatsuhashi. "Could you step back a little, Boss? Wouldn't want you to get your clothes dirty."

"Don't," said Coco. "We were just leaving."

"Aye aye," said Yatsuhashi. 

 

They closed the front door behind them and collected Velvet. Coco slapped Yatsuhashi's shoulder.

"My mountain man. Threatening presence in the background. Excellent bluff you pulled off there."

"Bluff?" said Yatsuhashi. "What bluff?" 

* * *

 

Team CFVY was at rest. Fox was lying on his bed, listening to the afternoon's lecture on his scroll. Yatsuhashi was checking the edge of his sword with a magnifying glass. Slicing metal was hard on any blade, even his. Velvet was doing maths coursework as a kind of self punishment for lurking in the shadows as Coco had ordered. Coco was lying on the trusty Team CFVY sofa with her head gently resting on Yang's soft warm pillowy assets. She had saved those tits from getting splattered all over the CCT. She could enjoy them a little. She was reading the contract, just to see how screwed Yang would have been if they hadn't cancelled it for her. After reading the first few paragraphs, her conclusion was 'very'. She waved.

"Got a red pen there, Velvet?"

"Yes," said Velvet. "Catch!"

She tossed it over. Coco caught it.

"Thanks sweetie." She underlined a few sentences. "Look Yang. This is what we pro models call a booby trap. It's not so much what it says, but more what it _doesn't_ say. Like this here. _The compensation will be £500_."

Yang looked. "What, is that not enough?"

Coco waggled a hand. "For a single photo, it would be great given your experience. For a video, so-so. For your entire career, it's breadcrumbs."

"So which is it?"

"Funny you should ask. It doesn't say. This means they can pay you whatever they feel like, and as long as it's going to be over five hundred lien at some point, you don't have a leg to stand on."

"But he said..."

"Spoken words are fleeting," said Coco. "Oh this one is nice. Look here. _The model will make herself available as the production requires_. Do you want a holiday? Tough. Exams coming up? Too bad. Also note, no end date. Could be an entire series. You sold your tits to the devil, sweetheart." Coco handed the paper up to Yang. "Stick this in a blender, whizz it to a pulp, and eat it. High in fiber."

"I'm gonna," said Yang. "Seriously Coco. Thank you. Thank you all. If there's anything I can do for you, just ask."

Coco sat up. "Okay. I'm gonna need you to take off your top now."

Yang stared at Coco. Coco stared back. Coco could outstare _cats_.

"You're kidding, right?"

Coco grinned, said nothing.

" _Right?_ "

"Yes," said Coco. "I'm kidding. For the love of kittens, Yang, be safe. It's not only out there there's Grimm."

Yang wrapped her arms round Coco in a bear hug that would kill her, but softly.

"Thank you," said Yang. "If you do want to see my tits, you know where I live. Yes, I _am_ kidding."

"Get out of my dorm, you floozie."

Yang got to her feet. "You're the best damn hasbeen I've ever seen." She winked at Coco, waved at the others, and walked out of the door.

Coco laughed. "Thanks Yang."


End file.
